I was feeling down today and for some reason felt as though I was falling short of the favors of my Lord. I felt the need to question myself about what it is that I am doing to be exempt from the ease that I seem to see so many people having. I don't mean the material ease more than the so called mental ease that the people seem to show for living in the society in which I live, dar-al-kufr! It is a serious trial being here regardless of the wealth one may have or the material benefits one may have aquired. I needed to hear that one thing that would make me feel as though I was trully from amongst the people whom Allaah favored. It feels like a punishment being here and feeling "STUCK in the mud." Even though looking at my wealth I want for nothing, walhamdulillah. Looking at my sustenance I do not lack any. Allah is the one who provides, walhamdulillah. I still felt as though I was missing something. The only thing I was missing was a reminder, SubhanAllaah. I think now after having read this article I will never doubt it again. Verily the reminder benefits those who believe. May Allaah keep us all within the "circles" of Ahl-al-Dhikr, aameen. To have these kind of reminders is something much needed in these days and times in which we live.

Before coming here today, I thought of how I would get through this talk with my voice being affected by hoarseness due to the dry heat in my apartment.

And then I began to ponder upon those who could not speak at all.

My car on the way here seems to always have some problems; tires, alternator, engine, transmission but then I quickly remembered those who do not have a car.

Growing up as a young man in the ghetto, sometimes you are teased and taunted for a variety of reasons.

I can still remember the children laughing at me, taunting and teasing me because of the size of my shoes. I used to run home and my mother would comfort me, drying the tears from my face and remind me of the old man down the street who had no feet!

Allaah has informed us in many, many places in the Qur?aan what He has done for us and of the favors He has bestowed upon us.

?He has created the Heavens and the Earth with truth (and He is) high above all those things they have associated with Him?

?And He gave you all of that which you asked for and if you were to count the Blessings of Allaah you would not be able to count them, surely the human being is an extreme ingrate, a disbeliever? Soorah Ibraaheem 14:34

The Prophet Muhammad, alaihes salaam has given us a du?aa that is the Master of ad'iyah (pl. du'aa) for seeking forgiveness. A line from that du'aa is:

??I recognize Your ni?mah (blessings or favors) that you have bestowed upon me??

Brother?s and sisters reflect upon Allaah?s statement:

?Has there not been over man a period of time when he was nothing to be mentioned??

The Prophet, alaihes Salaatu was Salaam one day spit into the palm of his hand, and then wiped his (noble index) finger across the spittle and said:

?Surely Allaah Azza wal Jalla has said:

?O Son of Aadam! How is it that you (try) to render Me powerless, when I have created you from something like this (i.e. the spittle)? I have created you and fashioned you perfectly, and given you due proportion?.

In other words brothers and sisters, He could have created us with our mouths on the bottom of our feet, or our eyes between our legs or our ears near our navels, but he perfected us, giving us a beautiful form!

He Azza wa Jalla continues: ?But you are walking in your clothes [the clothes that He gave us], walking proudly, stomping your feet, shaking the Earth. You accumulate and accumulate, then you hold back (giving of the wealth that I have bestowed upon you). UNTIL?your souls reach your throats, then you say: ?I?ll give charity now!?

?NOW IS THIS THE TIME FOR SADAQAH??

Collected by al-Imaam Ahmad in his Musnad, al-Imaam ibnu Maajah in his Sunan, Ibnu Sa?d in his Tabaqaat from Hareez ibn Uthmaan from Abdur Rahmaan ibn Maysarh, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr from Busr ibn Jahhaash al-Qurashee, with a saheeh chain, inshaa Allaah.

Let us remember, my beloved brothers and sisters in Deen, that we used to be something unmentioned. Allaah reminds us of this:

?Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was nothing to be mentioned?

?Indeed, We have created man from a nutfah (drops of mixed semen) in order to try him, so We made him hearer, seer?.

?Verily We showed him the way whether he be grateful or ungrateful.?

Sooratul Insaan [76:1-3]

We will never, ever be able to enumerate the ni'am (pl.ni?mah ) He has granted us.

Let us look at some of them.

The Human Ear: It is so sensitive ? may Allaah allow you to hear His call ? that it can perceive sound waves with an energy of only one ten thousand trillionth of a watt, and the pressure of the barest audible sound is ten billion times less than the atmospheric pressure at sea level. The threshold valley is so low that it is close to the energy of thermo motion.

In other words ? may Allaah direct you to correct worship ? if our ears were just a little more sensitive, we would always hear a background noise, like the molecules colliding in the air!

When a paper clip hits a wooden floor and a rocket ship takes off, they both cause vibrations or sound waves in the air. If Allaah had not created them for us out of His infinite mercy and bounty, we would be able hear the squeaking of our bones, the flowing of our blood, the beating of our hearts!

However, Allaah has created for you and I something as simple as sound waves. So now, you can hear my voice speaking to you, your baby crying, your husband or wife say: ? I love you!?

In spite of this (and that was not mentioned associated to the human ear), we still use our ears to listen to backbiting, slander gossip, music etc. instead of using them to listen to the Qur?aan, the authentic Sunnah, the myriad of adhkaar (pl. dhikr) and the words of the Ulamaa.

The Human Eye: Just the small muscles around the lens of our eyes are used more than 100, 000 times each day. If our leg muscles tried to do that much work, they would have to go on a 50-mile hike!

Eighty (80%) percent of the raw sensory information that is a basis for our knowledge is provided by our eyes.

Eighty percent of that is received into our brains.

Many of you brothers and sisters are old enough to remember the outer space expedition of Vikings I and II that occurred between 1976 and 1980. During that trip, more than 50,000 images of the Planet Mars were captured. In addition, Voyages I and II transmitted about 70,000 images of Saturn and Jupiter back to Earth.

All of this took approximately two years. Combined they gathered 387 billion bits of information. Not million brothers and sisters but billions!

But that creature ? the Human Eye - that Allaah, the Best of Creators gifted us with can do more than that in 6.75 minutes!

Yet, we use this gift, the gift of sight, to stare at women (and men), look at shows on television, movies, read magazines that we should not look at!

Allaah?s Prophet, alaihes Salaatu was Salaam has given us a du?aa, to be said in rukoo? which reminds of us of this ni?mah, the ni?mah of (hearing) and sight:

?O Allaah, to You I have bowed, and in You I have believed, and to You I have submitted My hearing, sight, mind, bones, tendons, and what my feet carry are humbled before You!?

The Human Adult Heart: It pushes every minute one and one half (1/12) gallons of blood, eighty seven (87) gallons every hour, 2,100 gallons every day, 766,600 gallons per year, and more than 56,000,000 gallons in a average life span of someone 74 years old.

The Human heart uses enough energy each day to lift 2,000 lbs, to a height of forty one (41) feet. By the time you are fifty years olds, your heart has done enough work equal to lifting 10,000 tons to an altitude of 142 miles!

But dear Muslims ? may Allaah make your hearts firm on His Deen and His obedience - why do we use those hearts to love that which Allaah and His Messenger, sallaahu alaihi wa sallam hate and hate what Allaah and His Messenger, sallalaahu alaihi wa sallam love ?

We spend more time cleaning our homes, clothes, cars and the like than cleaning and polishing our hearts!

The Human Skin: We completely change it every 27 days, it keeps in body fluids, it keeps out the foreign agents, and it shields us from dangerous rays, it cools us off when the rays increase. It conserves heat in the body, and without it, you and I would not be able to feel the touch of your husband?s or wife?s hand.

The skin ? may Allaah protect yours from the Fire ? takes its own shape and repairs itself when damaged.

But that same skin, you do not pay enough attention to it when perform wudoo making sure that you don?t leave any parts of it unwashed. Some of you (women) do not cover it properly with the clothing you were commanded to utilize. Some of us pay more attention to the type of lotions and creams we desire to apply upon it to please the creation, than the One who created it!

We could go on and on dear respected Muslims. We could talk about the brain, and the blood cells, the human eyelashes and eyelids, and the fact that Allaah designed them to blink when something is hurled at them, to protect our eyes.

Imagine not being able to blink!

Dear Muslims, reflect more upon what you have instead of what you do not. Look at those who are beneath you instead above you and be grateful for what you have, for if you were to attempt to enumerate the blessings of Allaah you would not be able to calculate them.

Fa tabaarakallaahu ahsanul Khaaliqeen (So blessed be Allaah, the Best of Creators)!

Excerpts of a speech given by Dawud Adib about seven years ago but edited for www.salafitalk.net